"In its sheer enigmatic weirdness, Dario Argento's
Suspiria (1977) serves to remind us that no film is ever really a text,
but always an experience." Adam Simon*

Despite the originality, diversity and eccentricity of his work,
Dario Argento's name is synonymous with Italian horror—and
increasingly with horror cinema in general. The controversy generated by
his films has been matched only by the interest they inevitably provoke
and by their often overwhelming audiovisual design. In this two-part Kinoeye special, eleven scholars shed new historical, formal and theoretical light on the "Argento experience."

Part one: 1970 to 1980

In this historical-theoretical introduction to the giallo as it has developed in the Italian cinema, Gary Needham explains why this perenially popular form is less a genre than "a conceptual category with highly moveable and permeable boundaries that shift around from year to year."

Opening up a new direction in Argento scholarship, Frank Burke here looks at the presence of colonialist themes and references in L'Uccello dalle piume di cristallo. Among the forms of social domination present in this giallo classic are those of encagement, exploitation and compulsive accumulation.

In this "personal interpretation" of two of Argento's earliest films, Gary Needham looks at how each one relates to the giallo form, raising central issues of gender dynamics and the Italian horror film's fixation with boundary transgression.

In this multi-layered examination of Argento's undisputed magnum opus, Linda Schulte-Sasse analyses the use of gothic spaces and sly references to fascism and the film's eligibility for being "Disney's hidden reverse."

Showing precisely where and how the film's detractors have misunderstood Argento's aims, Jodey Castricano argues convincingly for Inferno's place as a key work of dream-logic and self-reflexivity in the director's oeuvre.

Part two (1981-2002) coming next issue—24 JuneJoin our free e-mail update list and get the contents delivered to your in-tray